Udvar-Hazy Center Air and Space Museum

We were in DC last weekend, so we spent a day at the new Air and Space Museum out at Dulles. It was totally worth holding onto the rental car for an extra day: SR-71, Enola Gay, Concorde, Discovery, etc., etc. Like all of the Smithsonians, admission is free. They ding you $15 for parking, but it was still worth it. The tours were free, too, and definitely informative.

And I know, no photos. They're on my phone. You can see some courtesy of the museum here: http://airandspace.si.edu/visit/floorplans/uhcmap.cfm

We visited the in-town Air and Space Museum while in DC, too. The one at Dulles was much less crowded, while the planes aren't nearly as packed in.

Not exactly new. But definitely worth visiting. I've been there 3 times and spent most of the day each time.

Three of the hundreds of pics I have. Note it is the Enterprise rather than the Discovery. I need to take a day and get back there to get some Discovery pics.

I saw a SR-71 up close in Mobile. Big and Black. It looks otherworldly.

I can fact dump on any aircraft in those pics. No Googles, swear to God.

Wow--that is an A-list, sick-ass collection of history right there.

Very cool.

That museum is the best I've seen. The O.G. Air and Space on the DC Mall is great just because of the history stored there but the Udvar Hazy is just.....phenomenal. Go. Just go if you have a chance.

This is one of my favorites there.

That is a great museum. I used to have lunch there 3-4 times per year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Love it. Been there many times. You should check out the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH and the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, FL if you like Udvar-Hazy.

I am surprised the SR-71 is still there. I distinctly remember that plane transforming into an Autobot and then crashing out of there!

I haven't been to Udvar-Hazy yet, but it's on my list! Been to the OG Smithsonian a few times though. If you like killer collections, you should also check out the Evergreen Air & Space Museum in McMinnville, OR. Spruce Goose, Bf-109, P-38, P-40, a chunk of Yamato's Betty...

I need to get there soon.

Since this may quickly become a directory of air and space museums, I'd highly recommend the Kalamazoo Air Zoo. Great collection including SR-71 (twin cockpit trainer version), P40, P47, pretty much every one of the Grumman Cats, F18, A4, F-14 (Jolly Rogers, best Tomcat livery ever IMO), SBD that was fished out of Lake Michigan, etc., etc. Well worth the time if you are within 100 miles.

I'll go:

Planes of Fame Museum in Chino CA ( http://planesoffame.org/ )

Kind of like the other museums except they can roll most of the planes off the display floor and fly them around (which they do regularly). Very impressively diverse collection. Currently restoring a P-59 to flying condition.

Is Kermit Week's Museum in Florida still open? I remember going there as a kid and a teen and he would show up once a day, point to a random plane and say "I'm flying that one" and then he would. That made it a really cool place to me. I can't remember what it was called though.

aircooled wrote: I'll go: Planes of Fame Museum in Chino CA ( http://planesoffame.org/ ) Kind of like the other museums except they can roll most of the planes off the display floor and fly them around (which they do regularly). Very impressively diverse collection. Currently restoring a P-59 to flying condition.

Saw the Aircomet two years ago. the air show there in May is amazing. The last Zero with the original motor, two of the last six P-38s, a P-39, a P-63 Kingcobra, a YAK, and tons of other stuff. We also walked the "back lot" where they store future projects. How about a complete F-104 in German Air force colors and a Boeing B-50?

When in southern AZ, hit Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson. Acres of mothballed jets, plus parked in the yard: An SR-71, a B-47, a B-36 (!!!!), a B-58 (!!!!!!!), and an X-15 in the pavillion. Plus a whole lot more. Definitely worth it.

Years ago I toured their Paul Garber restoration facility in Suitland, Maryland: http://airandspace.si.edu/garber/ Unfortunately it's not open to the public any more, but they had all kinds of cool stuff there - we walked through some of the storage hangars as well as the restoration hangars. They have so much stuff in storage that a lot of it will probably never see the light of day, aircraft and related artifacts dating anywhere from the dawn of flight all the way to today.

I remember they were working on the Enola Gay at the time, and were trying to figure out the best way to polish the aluminum; they had several different areas on the fuselage polished using different products, and asked us in the tour group to touch each section to see which one we thought was the best.

Was that also known as Silver Hill? I toured Silver Hill (NASM's restoration/storage facility) as a kid and remember being amazed at some of the esoteric stuff they had. And I remember being fairly obnoxious about showing off my knowledge of esoteric stuff.

DoctorBlade wrote: I saw a SR-71 up close in Mobile. Big and Black. It looks otherworldly.

I drive past one about everyday. Still looks cool.

I liked Udvar-Hazy when I was there last.

I toured the Pima Air & Space Museum last weekend. The B-36 was fully restored and sitting outside which was really cool because it's the only one in existence to my knowledge.

Best part of Pima is the fact that none of the aircraft are gated off like the Smithsonian so you are encouraged to go right up to them and poke around. I was up in the gear wells of the SR-71 displayed there as well most of the other aircraft they had on hand.

I also toured the Boneyard while there. That was pretty neat since they had the 747 with the chemical laser on it sitting out.

The Intrepid in NYC is worth going to see if you're up there too.

Wow. Never even knew "Udvar-Hazy" existed. Was just in D.C. back in the Spring and visited the Air and Space, among others.

Not in the same league, but we have a nice aviation museum here in Richmond: http://www.vam.smv.org/exhibits.html

Notable planes include an SR-71 and an F-14.

Nothing too fancy there, but adjacent to Dover AFB there is the Air Mobility Transport museum. Mostly cargo stuff, but they do have a very nice non-operation B-17. A lot of the other stuff you can walk through, get in the cockpit, etc.

The0retical wrote: I toured the Pima Air & Space Museum last weekend. The B-36 was fully restored and sitting outside which was really cool because it's the only one in existence to my knowledge.

The Air Force Museum in Dayton has one as well. From what I recall, they actually put the roof on the hanger, rolled the plane in, then finished construction of the outside walls because there was no other way to get it in the building.

The0retical wrote: ...The B-36 was fully restored and sitting outside which was really cool because it's the only one in existence to my knowledge.....

Pretty sure there is one in Dayton (Air Force Museum) and I think there is one (used to be?) one at the Castle museum in CA (I drive by the damn thing all the time but have never visited).

Why I know these things...

Yup, had to check, Castle still has it and some other interesting stuff:

http://www.castleairmuseum.org/ondisplay.html

Tangent:

Talking about aircraft collections. There used to be a guy in (Ohio?) who had a huge collection of some very interesting planes in his back yard (reported as a plane crash site a few times by pilots flying over). Well... one of the planes he had there was an F2G. He never wanted to sell any of the planes, he eventually died and his family sold them, including the super rare F2G, which eventually became:

Recently, this happened:

Some sort of control problem, plane flew straight into the ground after trying to do a loop.

You kind of wonder if the old guy may have been right... then again...

...the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long...

In reply to kazoospec:

Didn't realize there was one at Dayton, I know they're pretty rare though. As far as the hangar goes I can believe that. That airplane is unbelievably huge for something developed in the 40's.

Duke wrote: Was that also known as Silver Hill? I toured Silver Hill (NASM's restoration/storage facility) as a kid and remember being amazed at some of the esoteric stuff they had. And I remember being fairly obnoxious about showing off my knowledge of esoteric stuff.

I don't know if that place was known as Silver Hill, but Silver Hill has some incredible unrestored aircraft brought back from WWII. I think they should just clean them up and display them.